Benefits totalling £120,000 have been overpaid to claimants in Wokingham in the last five months, however a new investigations team is working to stamp out benefit fraud in the borough.

A team of seven officers at Wokingham Borough Council has been sifting through tip-offs, leads and information since January this year as part of the new investigations team, which was set up in January.

The team brings together officers working to catch benefit fraudsters, who overclaim on payments for areas such as housing and council tax, and manage complaints about the council’s work and whistleblower allegations.

Since April, the team has uncovered £120,000 of overpayments in benefits, including fraudulent and accidental excess claims.

A spokesman for the team said: “We have always had the housing benefit fraud investigation team, but what we decided to do was to have one central investigations team to cover all the fraud and any investigations for the council.

“We want to have one multi-skilled team that can deal with anything.”

In the last five months the council has issued nine sanctions – which can be a fine, caution or prosecution – to people found to have dishonestly claimed benefits.

Proactive initiatives are in the pipeline to catch swindlers picking from the taxpayers’ pocket.

There are plans for a council tax fraud exercise to ensure the single person occupancy discount is being taken up by the right people.

Dishonest tenants in council homes who sub-let their properties to make cash while people with a need for housing wait for homes to become available will also be targeted.

The spokesman for the team said: “The Audit Commission estimated for every council property that is not being used properly it costs £75,000 because of the additional costs associated with that, like having to put a family in bed and breakfast because no homes are available.”

The council also relies on information from local people.

The spokesman for the team added: “We get calls from people who might say somebody is working when they have told the council they are not, or it could be they have a partner living with them and we have not be told that.”

She added publicity in the press has also encouraged people, including those overclaiming benefits, to come forward to the team with information.

While making sure taxpayers’ cash is going to the right place, the investigations team is also making sure the council’s practices are above board.

The team has received around 80 complaints about the council since April.

Most complaints relate to tenants services, with issues such as maintenance.

However, the spokesman added most complaints are resolved by the tenants services department.

The team expects to uncover further excess benefit claimers over the next few months when it takes part in a national fraud initiative in October.

The scheme takes place every other year and involves a national data-sharing exercise to uncover suspect payments.

The spokesman said: “It’s even more important that we make sure money is being given to people who really need it at the moment because we are having to look across the board to make cuts.

“If people are making fraudulent claims its taking money away from the really needy users of the essential services and council taxpayers, who are struggling themselves.”

Anyone with information about benefit fraud can call the information hotline on 0800 454 240.